


Grave Robbing

by pharmtechgirl71



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Demonic Possession, Demons, Kidnapping, Murder, Other, Raising of the dead, Witches, mentions of rape/ non-con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-11 14:13:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16477100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pharmtechgirl71/pseuds/pharmtechgirl71
Summary: Daryl is raised from the grave to finish what he started.





	Grave Robbing

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoy. Let me know what you think. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Shannon sat in her car for God knows how long, looking across the field at the ancient stone markings. She had been so gung-ho about this earlier; she had been fearless in the face of danger, but now she wasn’t sure if this was what she wanted to do anymore. 

The rumor, for as long as she could remember, was that The Hunter had died fighting a demon that had possessed his wife. If anyone called to him, he would rise up and fight again, and if he were the victor, he would return to the living. 

Shannon’s sixteen-year-old sister was possessed. After their parents died, she had raised her younger sister in the cabin they had grown up in. A cabin in a wood purported to be the home of many spirits and creatures. There had always been rumors her grandmother was a witch and communed with the spirits and creatures in their wood. Shannon had never believed that until recently.

Taking a deep breath, she exited the car and grabbed the bag of items she had brought to perform the ritual. She had found her grandmother’s handwritten spell books by accident one day when she found a hidden room in their cellar.

Walking through the ancient graveyard, she shone her light on every headstone until she found the one she believed to be The Hunter. It was inscribed with the name Dixon and the dates 1758-1779. 

The Dixon family had been well known around these parts for over two hundred years. There weren't any Dixons left in Whitfield County, but the family legacy had reached mythical status and there wasn't a person alive who hadn’t heard their tragic story.

William Dixon was a time bomb. He would come into town every time he got paid and spend it on liquor and whores, then go back to the woods to his wife and two sons. If they were lucky, he’d pass out on the porch or in the bed. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t be seen in town until the bruises began to fade.

At some point, Mrs. Dixon went missing. The only one who seemed to give a shit was the youngest son, but he couldn’t do anything about it because his daddy had told everyone she ran off with another man, and everyone was too scared to call him a liar. 

The older brother died in the Revolutionary War, one of the thousand in the Battle of Germantown. No one seemed to miss him. Apparently, he had died a coward, being shot in the back as he ran from the enemy.

Shannon carefully sat the objects in front of her and poured a circle of salt which she proceeded to sit in the middle. She still wasn’t sure if she believed in this shit, but something was wrong with her sister, something neither the doctors nor she could diagnose or treat. She had found this spell in her grandmother’s books with a note that said it should never be used if other means were possible. She hadn't found an exorcism spell among her grandmother’s writings, so she considered this her only option. 

When her watch showed it was three thirty-three in the morning, she lit the candles and began the ritual. It took a total of fifteen minutes to chant the incantation, but when she finished, it felt more like an hour had passed. Shannon waited for something spectacular; a puff of smoke, a fire, or for the ground underneath her to tremble, but none of it happened. 

She cursed loudly. She cursed her grandmother, The Hunter, and her own gullibility before shoving the ritual items back in her bag and walking toward her car. She sat inside her vehicle and cried for at least ten minutes before she gathered herself and headed back to the cabin. 

Halfway home, she spotted what looked like a man walking in and out of the tree line. She couldn’t see him very well, he seemed to disappear and reappear. As she got closer, she saw him disappear again and as she placed her focus back on the road, he appeared directly in front of her car.

Shannon screamed as she slammed on her breaks. The figure in front of her raised its arm and pointed its index finger at her. “You did this!” The figure screamed at her. He approached at an alarming rate and Shannon locked all four doors as fast as she could.

“You did this to me! You did this! Why did you do this to me?” The man continued to yell as he pounded on the driver's side of the car.

Shannon was crying hysterically and screaming at the person outside her car. “I didn't do anything to you! I just want to go home! Please just let me go home!”

The man stopped hitting the window and stepped back. “You were in the cemetery. I don’t know what you did, or what you were trying to do, but I think you got the wrong guy.”

Shannon wiped the tears from her face and looked out the window at the man. His face was ashen; his disturbingly blue eyes were sunken. He was rail thin, but his arms were muscular and defined. 

She very slowly and very tentatively rolled the window halfway down. “Who are you?” she asked as she hiccupped through her words.

The man stood deathly still and looked at her with those blue eyes. “My name is Daryl Dixon. Why did you do that? Why did you bring me back?” he cried.

“I need the Hunter,” she answered. “My sister needs him.”

His eyes never left her. They were locked in a supernatural game of chicken. “Who is The Hunter?”

“I'm not sure,” she replied. “He died killing a demon and he will come back to try again. They say if he can kill it, he can come back to the living.”

Daryl took a step toward the car and stopped. “What year is it?” he asked.

“Two-thousand Eighteen,”

Daryl’s eyes became saucers. “Where am I?”

“Dalton, Georgia.”

He looked around him taking in his environment, then continued on to the vehicle. Walking to the passenger’s side, he pulled on the door handle until Shannon unlocked it. 

“What kind of wagon is this?” he asked when he closed the door. 

“It's not a wagon, its a car,” Shannon told him. “It’s powered by a battery and uses gas to run. The horses are under the front hood.”

Daryl gasped and held on to the seat as it vibrated under him. After a few minutes, he calmed down and looked out the window as Shannon drove.

“Tell me who The Hunter is?” he asked.

“All I know is that his wife was possessed by a demon and he died trying to save her. They lived in the woods and no one really knew the family. They're famous around here, though. Everybody says the whole Dixon family was cursed.”

Daryl sighed heavily and adjusted himself in his seat. “It wasn't a demon. It wasn't no supernatural thing.”

“What was it?” Shannon asked with a trembling voice.

“It was my father,” he replied. “He was a demon, just not a traditional one.”

Shannon pulled into the empty parking lot of the Save-a-lot and turned off the car. “You’re not going to be able to help me, are you?” she said as she buried her face in her hands.

“I don't know. You said something about your sister; what’s wrong with her?”

“She’s possessed. I never believed in that kind of shit until I found my grandmother’s journals and spell books. She wrote about you, your family and the legend.”

Daryl didn’t respond for a long time. “Tell me what is happening to her. How do you know she's possessed?”

Shannon turned in her seat to face him. “Strange things have been happening. Sometimes she says things that I can’t understand; it's like she’s speaking a different language. The power goes out and comes back, she has been sick on and off, she gets cuts, scratches and injuries from out of nowhere, and sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and she's either staring at me from the foot of my bed or I hear her talking to someone. Whoever it is talks back.”

Daryl’s mind went straight back to the night he died. There was a terrible thunderstorm, and Charlotte was in labor. Daryl hadn't known what to do; he needed to go into town and bring back the midwife, but was afraid to leave his new and very young bride alone. 

“How old is your sister?” he asked.

“She’s sixteen. This has been going on for six months now, and I can’t stand seeing her like this. She’s so thin and pale; she looks like death.”

“Where do you live?”

“On the other side of the woods, the cabin I was raised in. It’s been in my family for generations.”

“Take me there. I don’t know if I can help you, but I’ll try like hell.”

****************************************************

Daryl froze as the cabin appeared in the headlights. It had been renovated; of course it had, it’s been over two hundred years, but he knew it like he knew himself.   
“This is where you were raised?” he asked.

“My sister and I, our momma too. This cabin was my grandmother’s. Maybe before that, I don’t know.” Daryl steeled himself. He had no idea what he would meet in this place he knew far too well, but if he could change the fate of this girl, he would do whatever was in his power. 

Shannon unlocked the door and led Daryl inside. It looked nothing like he remembered. The cabin he had lived in was sparse. A fireplace, a bed and two bedrolls made of hay stolen from one of the farms outside of town. There had been a cellar on the property, but Daryl couldn’t remember where it was located. He didn’t want to think about that place anyway.

Everything was quiet and every light was off. Shannon flipped the switch beside the door and the entire living room lit up, causing Daryl to curse in shock. 

“Electricity,” Shannon said and dropped her keys on the kitchen table. “If you can save my sister, I’ll make sure you learn all about the modern world. I’ll even buy you a computer.”

Daryl looked at her strangely, but soon forgot about what she had said as he walked through the room. He reached out and touched each object as he passed it and Shannon allowed him to do his investigations. Behind the fireplace he saw a full kitchen, and a bathroom, although he didn’t know what that was.

While he was in the kitchen looking through the refrigerator, a scream came from one of the bedrooms on the other side of the cabin. Shannon ran out of the room toward the sound and Daryl was right on her heels. Pushing through the bedroom door, she saw her sister floating above her bed and moving toward the wall.

Her eyes were pale and sunken into her face; her skin was ashen and peeling from her cheeks. Shannon screamed and fell to the floor as Daryl came up behind her and quickly entered the room. “Put her down, goddammit!” he yelled at whatever was controlling the girl.

The cabin shook, but the girl stayed where she was. “I don’t listen to no pussy boy,” a booming voice said. A booming male voice that had come from the little girl's mouth. Her body righted itself and continued to float until her back slammed into the wall.

“Leave her the fuck alone!” Daryl yelled again. “She doesn't belong to you! I don't belong to you!”

“That's where you’re wrong, boy. You always belonged to me. Every part of you, even your soul, you worthless piece of shit! You couldn't kill me then and you can't kill me now!”

Shannon managed to get back on her feet and stood behind Daryl. She was shaking and sobbing as she watched whoever or whatever this was manipulate her sister. She put her hands on Daryl's waist to let him know she was there.

“Get a Bible and some salt,” he told her as he turned his head slightly, not wanting to take his eyes off the girl.

Without question, Shannon did as she was told and returned with the hardback family Bible and a bag of salt from the pantry.

Daryl immediately took the Bible and held it up. He said a few words that could have been Latin and the cabin shook again. The lights flickered and the girl fell onto the bed as if she had been thrown. Dropping the Bible, he rushed to the bed and scooped the girl into his arms and carried her to the next room.

Laying her out on the floor, Daryl told Shannon to sit beside her sister and then he poured the salt around them in a circle. “Does that shit really work?”

“Yes,” he replied. “Now sit still and don't disturb the circle. It's going to keep him out.”

When the circle was complete, the young girl's body began to shake; she sat straight up and expelled a cloud of black smoke before collapsing into her sister's arms. Daryl and Shannon watched as the black fog hovered in front of Daryl and began to take shape. He knew what was about to happen and took steps to stop it.

“Why are you here?” He asked. “You don't belong here anymore. Your time has passed.”

“This is still my home, boy. Ain't nobody gonna take what's mine unless I allow it. You're the one that doesn't belong here. You couldn't stop me when you were alive, what makes you think you can keep me out now.”

“You're not taking her; you've taken enough! Leave these people be! If you want to take somebody to hell, take me you bastard!”

The black form moved closer to Daryl, close enough to invade him. “I did, boy, or did getting raised up fuck with your head? I sent you to hell and sent that whore with you.”

Daryl was enraged and reached into the bag of salt; pulling out a handful, he threw it at the black figure. A screeching sound came from it and it moved like a deflating balloon up the chimney and outside the house. He immediately stepped into the circle with Shannon and her sister.

“Who and what the fuck was that?” Shannon whispered, afraid that any noise would bring it back.

“That’s your demon,” Daryl told her, looking down at the girl in her arms. “He was my father and it’s a long story.”

“I won’t dare assume he’s gone for good; when will he be back?”

Daryl looked up at Shannon with a sad look in his eyes. “I don’t know. He may bide his time and wait for us to fall asleep or he may go out and find another vessel.”

Shannon was scared shitless but knew that Daryl had information that would make this situation make sense, whether she wanted to hear it or not. “What does he want?”

“He wants your sister; he wants to use her up, destroy her, and send her to hell. It’s what he’s done to every person he’s ever known.” He shook his head. “It’s what he did to momma, it’s what he did to Charlotte. They’re both gone because of him. I don’t know what happened after I died; I don’t know what happened to him or Charlotte, but I remember my momma. She’s buried in the cellar.”

Shannon’s mouth hung open. “What cellar?” she whispered tentatively. 

“The one behind this house.”

Shannon gasped. “You may not want to talk about it, but for fucks sure I need to know what is going on.”

Daryl sighed and shook his head. “I don’t know how much time we have until he comes back, but I’ll tell you what I can.” He looked down at the girl once more, thinking how much she looked like his mother and Charlotte before beginning his story.

“Daddy took momma away when she was sixteen. He liked young girls and her family was big; thirteen brothers and sisters. Her parents let her go with him and he brought her to the woods to live. My brother was born soon after that and me about five years later.

Momma said her family had a special relationship with nature; the women could make medicine and heal people. Sometimes they made spells for people who needed help, but she never did no black magic. I never heard her curse or say bad things about anybody no matter what somebody offered her for it. She was a good woman with a good heart. 

Daddy got jealous of all the people who came to see her and got mad everytime she refused to give a bad spell for money. He used to beat her, and my brother and me almost to death when he’s drunk and thinking about how much we ruined his life.”

Daryl paused and took a long, deep breath before continuing. “He killed her when I was eight. I suppose she was too old for him by that time, and he didn’t want her getting in the way no more; he made my brother and me bury in the cellar.”

Shannon couldn’t believe what she was hearing. It all jived with what she had heard growing up and what she had read in her grandmother’s books, but hearing it straight from the Dixon who knew made it real. 

“Anyway, I met Charlotte when I’s about twenty-one. She’d just moved here and her folks opened the General Store in town. She was so pretty. I hadn’t never courted anyone before and nobody’d asked to court her yet, but her daddy let us anyway. She was sixteen and he was worried I was too old for her, but he finally realized how much we loved each other. I tried to hide her from daddy, but he found out about us.

He took her away, but I found her. He was keeping her in that cellar, but I got her out. I didn’t know it then, but he’d hurt her real bad. He disappeared after that. A few months later, Charlotte became my wife and we were going to raise the child as mine, but I died the night she went into labor.”

Just then, a loud banging almost knocked the front door off its hinges. “You think you’re safe in there, boy? You think you can protect those whores?” The banging moved from the door to the windows and around the outside of the cabin. 

Shannon jumped and Daryl put his arms around her to keep her inside the circle. “You aren’t allowed here! You aren’t welcome! Leave and go to hell where you belong!”

“I’ll go, boy, but I ain’t going alone. I’m taking that sweet little girl with me.”

The knocking and banging stopped then and the three sat in silence not knowing what to expect. When the front door flew open, the wind caused the circle of salt to dissipate throughout the room and all the light bulbs in the cabin shattered. Shannon screamed and hugged her sister to her chest.

Daryl stood, but was thrown against the far wall before he could focus his eyes on the shadow moving toward him. “I have had enough of your bullshit, little boy! You always wanted to be something you ain’t and look where it got you! I am going to send you to Hell where you belong and take that sweet little girl with me.” 

Daryl lay crumpled on the floor while Shannon took the opportunity to drag her sister and herself to the corner of the room. The cabin began to shake; books, pictures, and other valuable items shattered on the floor as the room filled with evil laughter. 

Daryl’s body began to rise and slid up the wall much like the little girl’s had only minutes before and shook along with the cabin as it did. Shannon, moved by a moment of bravery, looked up and into the darkness. As her eyes darted toward the other side of the room, she thought she saw a spark of flame in the fireplace. 

She couldn’t bare to watch what was happening to Daryl; the demon was throwing him around the room and onto the floor repeatedly. As she turned back to the fireplace, the spark she had seen began to grow until it became a ball of flame and floated into the room. 

She watched as it hovered in the air, moving toward the demon and Daryl. The demon however, did not take notice and missed seeing it approach the Hunter. Only when the man’s body became engulfed in flames and the entire cabin lit up like the sun, did he stop his assault. 

The Hunter’s body hovered inside the flame but did not burn. His mouth and eyes opened wide and a shrill scream came from his lips. The demon stood his ground until he couldn’t, and after what seemed like hours, the shadow burst open releasing a hundred starlings which quickly escaped through the open door and chimney. 

As the flame dissipated, Daryl’s body came back down to the floor and he laid in a heap. Shannon simply stared at him, afraid to leave her sister; afraid to acknowledge that what she had just experienced was real. She felt her sister stir and looked down to see the girl staring back at her with tears in her eyes. Shannon cried over her sister, grateful that she had survived

The focus she had on her sister was broken by the feeling that there was someone else in the room. Looking over at Daryl she saw the transparent figure of a young woman kneeling before the man’s body, stroking his cheek and brushing the hair from his eyes. Shannon could hear her speaking softly to Daryl and saw his eyes open.

“He's gone, my sweet boy. You did it, you destroyed him. I always told you you would overcome him. I'm so proud of you, Daryl.” Shannon could see tears forming in the corners of his eyes and realized who the woman was.

As if they both noticed her at once, two sets of eyes set themselves on Shannon and her sister. “See, honey, they’re both gonna be fine; thanks to you.” The young woman stood and brought Daryl up with her.

Daryl began to speak, he tried to tell me who the woman was and tell her who I was, but she stopped him before any sound could come out of his mouth.

“I know the girl. I’ve watched our whole family grow. She’s been looking through my books and I’m glad she found the spell I left. I knew someone would eventually. I only wish it had been sooner.”

“Those were my grandmother’s books,” Shannon replied. “I recognized her handwriting.”

“Her handwriting, my words. Your grandmother was very powerful; the Earth spoke to her as it did to me and she allowed me to use her mind and body to accomplish the things needed to bring this to fruition. William has terrorized this land and this family beyond his time and you were the only one who could stop him.”

Daryl looked at her, confused. “There are no more Dixons. How can there be? I died, Charlotte died . . . the baby died.”

The ghostly female smiled. “You’re daughter lived, Daryl. I took her before her mother passed and left her for the girls family to raise. They thought the baby had died, just as everyone else did, but they raised her as their own and never knew. She was beautiful and happy and grew up to raise her own happy family in this very place. You are standing in the Dixon homestead. There have always been Dixons here; we are all family.”

Shannon took her sister and sat on the couch. “Have there been a lot of witches in this family?”

“Many, but some do not want it.” The woman turned to Daryl. “You always had more potential than your brother. He never wanted it, that’s why he always ran away. He didn’t believe in it.”

Then she turned to Shannon and her sister. “You believe in it now. You witnessed your own power. Take my books, learn the spells, how to use the herbs for healing. You are both very powerful and can command the very Earth to give itself to you. You commanded sacred ground to give up my son and it did,” she said then looked back at Daryl. “You commanded the fire to destroy the demon and it obeyed.”

Daryl and Shannon looked at each other, neither knowing what to say or how to react. “Is the legend true? Did you write that as well?” He finally asked.

Shannon suddenly remembered the story she had told him in the car about his reward for killing the demon. “Yes, yes. Does he get his life back?”

“William took your life and when you destroyed him, it was returned to you. You have as many years on this Earth as you desire.”

A broad smile appeared on Daryl’s face. “Thank you,” he said to his mother. He wanted to wrap his arms around her and hug her tight, like he had when he was a child, but he couldn’t. His words were all he could give her.

Daryl watched as the image of his mother began to fade. She told him how much she loved him and how proud she was of the man he had become. She wished him and Shannon long life together and disappeared. 

Shannon helped her sister get ready for bed. The girl had been having a hard time staying conscious after the ordeal, so Shannon had decided to let her have a few days off from school to recover. When she returned to the living room, she found Daryl inspecting her DVD collection.

“I’m going to take a couple weeks vacation from work,” she told him as she passed through the room and into the kitchen. “You need to acclimate and that’s gonna take all my time and patience, I believe.” 

After looking in the refrigerator and finding she had nothing to make for breakfast, she walked back into the living room. “Would you mind staying here and keeping an eye on things while I go to the store; we need food, I’m sure you’re starving.”

Daryl nodded his head. “I’ll keep her safe. You go to the market.”

“This may sound stupid,” she said before walking out the door, “but did they have coffee when you were alive?”

Daryl laughed. “Charlotte made the best I’d ever had. I drank it everyday.”

“Thank God,” Shannon replied. “First thing I’m going to teach you about is a magical place called Starbucks.”


End file.
